Communications networks now require handling of data at very high data rates. For example, 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) is common. When it is required to process data at these speeds, multiple high-speed parallel connections may be used to increase the effective bandwidth. However, this may result in one or more transmission problems, since the data streams must be divided to be distributed over the multiple parallel connections, and then at some point after parallel transmission, recombined to form the original streams.